


Gloriana

by Sapphy, SapphyWatchesYouSleep (Sapphy)



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: AO3 Fundraiser Auction, F/M, Romance, Trans Character, Trans Female Character, trans Pepper
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-22
Updated: 2013-09-22
Packaged: 2017-12-27 08:40:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/976750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapphy/pseuds/Sapphy, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapphy/pseuds/SapphyWatchesYouSleep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Pepper applied for a job at Stark Industries, she'd never expect to meet someone like Tony Stark.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gloriana

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rocketrobin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rocketrobin/gifts).



> I am not trans*, so if I make any horrible mistakes, please do tell me.
> 
> All complaints to be directed to me, all thanks to Teddy, who commissioned this fic.

She’s beginning to think choosing her job interview with Stark industries as her first official ‘out in public around complete strangers who don’t know she’s trans’ girl-mode day was a really really bad idea. But when she’d had the application form in front of her, it had seemed like a great idea. Putting down her new name had felt good, exciting. Seeing it down there in blue ink, Virginia Potts (Virginia because she was new, unformed, and because Elizabeth I had been a badass ginger lady) had been amazing. But now she’s sitting in the sleak polished lobby, skirt tight in unfamiliar places, surrounded by other much smarter looking people all waiting to be interviewed for the same job, she’s starting to regret it.

She’s got a magazine open on her lap (National Geographic, you get a higher quality of waiting room magazine in Stark HQ) but she’s not reading it, just staring at the pictures and trying not to have a panic attack. (She’s sorely tempted to just up and leave, but she does actually want this job, and she’s going to have to face the world girl mode sooner or later).

“Virginia Potts?” a voice calls, and she takes a deep breath and drops her magazine. Walking into the office isn’t as stressful as it could be, partly because she’s focussing too hard on walking on the ridiculous stillettos she’d somehow thought were a good idea to think about anything else.

There are three people in the room, sitting behind a table, two men and a woman, in terrifyingly expensive looking suits. She does her best to sit down elegantly on the chair provided, and only avoids face-planting into the desk when strong hands catch her arm, steadying her.

There’s a man behind her, and even though she’s seen his face in the newspapers hundreds of times, it still takes her a moment to recognise him. She refuses to be ashamed of how her heart is beating, because he’s even more handsome in real life that in photos, and the way he’s holding her, one hand on her arm and another at the small of her back, makes her feel like a heroine in a romance novel, delicate and feminine and desirable.

“You okay?” he asks, setting her back on her feet, and she can feel the blush rising up her neck.

“Yeah, fine,” she tells him, ducking her head. She passes, she _knows_ she passes, but this is the first time she’s been faced with a handsome stranger while wearing a skirt.

“So you finally decided to show up?” one of the men asks, voice sarcastic.

“Completely forgot,” Stark says, cheerful. “This is why I need a PA.”

“Well why don’t you take a seat, and we can get on with this,” the other man says. Pepper can’t help but notice the way they talk to Stark, like he’s an irritating child, rather than their boss.

“Sure, yes, good idea,” Stark says. He hasn’t taken his hand of her arm, and she can feel his eyes on her, interested but not aggressive. She can’t help but catalogue what she knows he’s seeing. She’s too tall, her hands too big, the angles of her body still too severe, despite the HRT. She’s still not as good at doing her make-up as she wants to be, knows her eyeliner isn’t quite even.

She makes herself step away from his warmth, takes the seat without falling over this time. There’s no seat for Stark at the desk, but he doesn’t seem to mind, perches on the edge of it, twirling a screwdriver between two fingers absently.

He looks like he started to get dressed ready for interviewing PAs, and then forgot what he was doing and went to do something mechanical, smart white shirt smeared with oil and hair wild. His pockets bulge oddly, and when he sits down a cascade of screws tinkle out onto the floor.

He’s very distracting, and twice she has to ask for a question to be repeated because she’s too busy staring at hiss grease stained fingers to hear what’s being said.

She’s resigned herself to not getting the job, has started the mental pep-talk about how there are other jobs out there, and now she’s got one interview girl-mode out of the way the next one won’t be so scary, when Stark says, talking over one of panel, “How do you feel about African food?”

She admits she’s never had any, and Stark shakes his head sadly, like she just admitted to never being hugged as a child.

“That is a sin, and we must do something about it at once,” he says firmly. “I’m in the mood for something hot enough to burn the roof off my mouth. JARVIS, order some food would you?”

“Just for you and Miss Potts, or for the others as well?” a cool English voice asks. She leans back in her seat, trying to see where it’s coming from, and sees that Tony is staring up at a small camera set into the ceiling.

“Just us thanks J,” Stark says. “No food for these guys till they finish interviewing all those terrifyingly organised looking people I saw waiting in the lobby.”

He slides of the desk and offers her his hand. “Coming?” he asks.

They eat eye-wateringly hot chicken stew out of metal take-away containers, sitting on the huge L shaped sofa in Tony’s office, Pepper curled up with her stocking’d feet tucked underneath herself, stillettoes abandoned in the corner of the room, while Tony talks nineteen to the dozen about how brilliant JARVIS is, and how having a personal AI has changed his life. She hadn’t realised till she smelled the food just how hungry she was. She’d been too nervous to eat anything before she left.

When they finish eating there’s an awkward moment when Pepper starts to get up to go, and Tony says she doesn’t have too, and she doesn’t know if that’s an invitation to stay or just politeness, but she goes anyway, citing the uncomfortableness of her clothes as the reason. It’s not until she’s nearly out of the building that JARVIS tells her that she’s got the job. She grins all the way home.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr at Gluttonforpunishment (recs) and lentilsforeverything (multifandom blog)


End file.
